This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. H11(1999)-280245 filed on Sep. 30, 1999, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system such as a print system for use in a copying machine, a printer and the like, and also relates to an image processing method.
2. Description of Related Art
In a copying machine as one of image processing systems, image data read by an image reading apparatus is written into a memory such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) after being stored in a hard disk or without being stored in a hard disk. The written image data is read out from the memory, and then is subjected to an image processing to be printed.
Generally, image data of a plurality of pages is written into a DRAM in a compressed state at a compression rate of from 100% to 5% depending on the original attributes. For example, the compression rate of an image data of a page including many characters, is excellent. On the other hand, the compression rate of image data of a page including a large amount of half tones such as a picture, is poor.
Furthermore, as an image processing mode, an electronic sort mode and a memory recall mode are known. In the electronic sort mode, a processing of reading out image data from a DRAM in a predetermined page order, for example, page 1 to page Nxe2x86x92page 1 to page Nxe2x86x92 . . . , and printing the image, is repeated a plurality of times. In the memory recall mode, image data of an image once printed is held in a memory such as a DRAM or a hard disk. Thereafter, the image data is read out from the memory again based on, for example, a re-print request of a user, and printed.
As one example of a prior art of an image processing system disclosing a part of the aforementioned structure, Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. H10-304111 is known. In this prior art, in cases where empty capacity of a DRAM becomes insufficient during a printing of image data or it becomes impossible to secure a predetermined empty capacity, empty capacity of the memory is secured by deleting image data from the page to be printed first among image data of pages 1 to N to be stored in the DRAM from the memory in sequence, i.e., by deleting image data from page 1 from the memory in sequence. Then, in the empty area of the memory, image data of the subsequent page is written to continue the printing operation.
However, in the aforementioned conventional image processing system, in cases where empty capacity of a memory becomes insufficient or it becomes impossible to secure a predetermined empty capacity during the writing of image data when it is repeatedly performed to read and then print one set of image data of page 1 to page N in the page order as in the aforementioned electronic sort mode or memory recall mode, the image data of page 1, which is the first page to be subjected to an image processing, is deleted first. Accordingly, when the image data of page 1 to page N is to be printed again, it is required to newly read all pages of page 1 to page N by an image reading apparatus to store in a DRAM again. This takes a longer time to complete the printing, resulting in a decreased processing efficiency.
This kind of drawback does not always occur only in a copying machine but may also occur in an image processing system to which an image reading apparatus is connected to execute an image processing.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing system which can avoid a deterioration of an image processing efficiency by avoiding the necessity of re-reading of all of original documents by an image reading apparatus even if empty capacity of a memory becomes insufficient when a writing of image data of a plurality of pages into the memory in a predetermined page order, a reading of the image data from the memory and an image processing thereof are repeatedly performed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing method which can avoid a deterioration of an image processing speed as a whole even in cases mentioned above.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, an image processing system includes:
an image reader for reading image data of original documents;
a memory which is capable of storing image data of the original documents of a plurality of pages read by the image reader;
a first controller which executes a writing of a set of image data of the original documents of a plurality of pages into the memory in a prescribed page order, and repeatedly executes a reading of the set of image data from the memory and an image processing thereof;
a detector for detecting insufficiency of empty capacity of the memory; and
a second controller which, in the event that insufficiency of empty capacity of the memory is detected by the detector during the writing of image data into the memory by the first controller, holds the image data of the original documents of one or a plurality of pages stored in the memory and executes a subsequent image processing by using the image data held in the memory; and
a third controller which executes a prescribed processing of a re-reading of image data of the original documents corresponding to the image data not held in the memory among the set of image data by the image reader in the subsequent image processing by the second controller.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, an image processing method which repeatedly reads out a set of image data of a plurality of pages from a memory to execute an image processing thereof, the method includes the steps of:
writing the set of image data of original documents of a plurality of pages read by an image reader into the memory in a prescribed page order in turn and reading out the image data written in the memory in turn to execute an image processing thereof;
detecting insufficiency of empty capacity of the memory during the writing of the image data into the memory;
holding only the image data of the original documents of one or a plurality of pages stored in the memory and executing a subsequent image processing by utilizing the image data held in the memory; and
executing a prescribed processing for a re-reading of the original documents corresponding to the original documents whose image data is not held in the memory among the set of image data by the image reader in the subsequent image processing.
With the aforementioned image processing system or the image processing method, in cases where a writing of one set of image data of a plurality of pages read by an image reading apparatus into the memory is performed in a predetermined page order, and a repetition of a reading out of the set of image data from the memory and an image processing thereof is executed, in the same manner as in, for example, the electronic sort mode or memory recall mode, when the empty capacity of the memory becomes insufficient during the writing of the image data into the memory, and a part of image data stored in a memory is held as it is. As for the image data held in the memory, a subsequent image processing is executed by the second controller by utilizing the image data held in the memory. As a result, since it is not required for the part of image data held in the memory to be read by an image reading apparatus even in cases where an image processing is repeated, the processing time as a whole can be shortened.
With regard to the image data not held in a memory, since a prescribed processing of a re-reading thereof by an image reader is performed by the third controller, it is only required to read the image by the image reader in accordance with the prescribed processing, which results in an enhanced operability.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, an image processing system with a memory capable of storing image data of a plurality of pages which executes a writing of a set of image data of a plurality of pages into the memory in a prescribed page order, and repeatedly executes a reading of the set of image data from the memory and an image processing thereof, the image processing system, includes:
an image reader for reading original documents of a plurality of pages to obtain a set of image data to be stored in the memory;
a detector for detecting insufficiency of empty capacity of the memory;
a first processor which, in the event that the insufficiency of empty capacity of the memory is detected by the detector during the writing of the set of image data into the memory, executes an image processing of the image data of one or a plurality of pages previously stored in the memory without deleting the image data from the memory, and executes an image processing of image data of one or a plurality of subsequent pages while executing a writing of the image data into the memory and a deletion thereof from the memory every page; and
a second processor which executes an image processing of a second set of image data, wherein the second processor executes an image processing of the image data of one or a plurality of pages stored in the memory by reading out the image data and an image processing of the image data of a subsequent page obtained by reading the original document again; and
a third processor for executing a prescribed processing for a re-reading by the second processor.
According this image processing system too, in the event that the memory capacity becomes insufficient, an image processing of the image data of a page previously stored in the memory is executed without deleting the image data and the image processing of the image data of the subsequent page is executed while repeatedly writing the image data into the memory, deleting thereof from the memory and executing an image processing thereof. Therefore, the whole processing time can be shortened. Furthermore, since the prescribed processing for a re-reading of the image not stored in the memory is executed, it is only required to read the image by an image reader in accordance with the prescribed processing, resulting in an enhanced operability.
Other objects and the features of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the invention with reference to the attached drawings.